Fort Assiniboine Museum

Location: On State Avenue in Fort Assiniboine, at the wagon wheel and pickaxe.

Info: Open weekends in June from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily except Mondays in July and August from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and by appointment the rest of the year. 780584-3737.

Fort Assiniboine’s history is commemorated in a museum constructed in the style of the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort that was located here during the Klondike Gold Rush. The museum portrays Klondike history and contains pioneer furniture, tools, traps, farm equipment, some of the nails from the original fort, wildlife exhibits, medical instruments, a schoolhouse, and a locally found bison skull that is around 3,000 years old.

Wagon wheel and pickaxe next to the Fort Assiniboine Museum

Fort Assiniboine Sandhills Wildland Provincial Park

Location: The central and viewpoint staging areas are 30 km north of Fort Assiniboine on

Hwy 661; the Klondike staging area is about 15 km north.

Info: 780-960-8170; 1-800-427-3582.

Fort Assiniboine Sandhills Wildland is a remote backcountry provincial park in the boreal forest, located along the north shore of the Athabasca River. You will see a wide range of landscapes here, including steep valley walls, river flats, springs, wetlands, and stable sand dunes, as well as pine, white spruce, and aspen forests. The park is an outdoor enthusiast’s delight, with opportunities for birding, fishing, backcountry hiking, and wildlife watching. Look for pileated woodpeckers, wood warblers, and flying squirrels in the old-growth forest. You might find nesting sandhill cranes in the fens, or mammals that include beaver, mink, mule, white-tailed deer, moose, muskrat, and river otter. It is also a worthwhile location in which to seek and identify wildflowers, as more than 435 plant species have been documented here. Visit the interpretive viewpoint to see the Athabasca River and surrounding landscape. The park has three day-use sites: the Central Staging Area, the Athabasca Viewpoint Staging Area, and the Klondike Trail Staging Area. Follow the trail signs to hike part of the Klondike Trail used by gold seekers who flocked northward to the goldfields. The staging areas have small parking lots, and the Klondike and Viewpoint staging areas each have a picnic table.